There is not much information on how your network setup is. I realize you are able to connect, login and play a bit especially with new characters but I am thinking this is a network connection error. We can go through the motions though and maybe something will shake loose.

- Ensure the latest version of DirectX is installed on all 'puters. It's up to v9.0c and comes with SP2 for WinXP. See here for a little more on how DirectX is involved in FL MP.
- I would think all your 'puters should be on the same subnet (i.e. xxx.xxx.xxx.2-354 where the xxx is consistant on each 'puter). Better yet would be to have some DHCP server to help keep the IP addresses straight.
- Today's gateways contain much more than just routers. They have NAT servers (firewalls), DHCP servers, login scripts for several protocols, port translation, tunnels (virtual server setups) and more. A switch (a better type of router) does none of these other things a gateway does. {pet peeve}It's absurd to call gateways routers because they do MUCH more than just route!{/pet peeve} Sorry, had to get that out.
- On a similar note you may have something that doesn't renew the lease on your IP addresses. Or it fails to renew after a certain amount of time. Long shot I admit.
- WinXP's firewall is kind of low key. Could it possibly be enabled on the server? If the uPnP (an automatic way of opening ports) isn't working it may be blocking the INCOMING port flserver.exe needs.
- A strictly logical approach says there may be something wrong with how the saved FL MP game files are saved, accessed, written to, etc. How is your setup on the server? Is it a standard installation? Are there any SP files and directories around? Are you playing on the same 'puter the server is on? FL servers can be quite demanding when they are also used for game play.

Hope some of this helps!

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

sorry for all the missing info on our network

We only use a 1000 mbit switch, there is no internet installed at my mates place where we all 4 have our pc´s at the moment, so we have already setup our IP adress and subnet manually.

None of us have any kind of firewall or virus protection running.

The server is setup on a P4 2,6 mHz, with 500 MB RAM, we used the server only installation on that machine, so no one is playing on it. All of the installations are clean, no mods or anything on the playing machines.

Our directx is the same on all machines, 9.0c, we are running XP on all machines none of them with SP2 since we have heard rumors about it being a bit weird when it comes to games.

We tried calling Microsoft today, they said that they could help us but since we were playing the game on a LAN they wanted consultancy fees amounting to about 400$, if it was a single player problem it would have been for free, and even if it was something simple and could easily be fixed, they were not allowed to tell us before we payed all that money .... of course we wanted to tell them to go some place where the sun does not shine ... but we mananged the get a hint out of the tech support guy, he said that we could try to get a server log file from someone else who has a server running.

So now we are at that point, do anyone have a server log file they are willing to mail me???

I have not used this forum before, can you see my email in my profile???

OK, sounds like except for a gateway you have everything set up as it should to play on your own LAN as I do when I play on my own servers.

Don't know specifically what log file the tech was talking about. The fl-server-errors.log created by flserver and placed in the root directory only has the same entries you see in the console view of flserver. About all you'd get from that was flserver's inability in connecting to the FL global list server, which is understandable but not necessary for LAN play.

How constant is this 3 minutes before crash time? Is flserver running in an administrator account? I am running out of ideas that could help you.

BTW trust me *serious look on my face* SP2 for WinXPPro is fine for games or anything. I have it on every 'puter I have (five of them) and on many 'puters I work on (friends & relatives) but don't have (nearly a dozen). Never once did I hear a complaint from anyone on their performance. The only caveat is a firewall is installed and must be configured correctly. In default mode a popup is displayed when a new program accesses the firewall. While that may mess with a game that plays full screen, it's not fatal. Nevertheless that shouldn't be a problem in this case.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)